SUNNYVALE, Calif., Feb. 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DrChrono Inc., the company developing the essential platform and services for modern medical practices, today announced that its open FHIR API is now live, enabling its patient members to securely transfer their available health records out of DrChrono into the Apple Health app on iPhone. Health Records brings together hospitals, clinics and the existing Apple Health app to make it easy for patients to see their available medical data from multiple providers whenever they choose. The Health Records feature is part of the Health app, which also shows activity, heart rate, nutrition and other health data consolidated from iPhone, Apple Watch and HealthKit-enabled third-party apps.
This means patients can go to various care team specialists, such as a therapist, orthopedist, ophthalmologist, surgeon, gastroenterologist, and chiropractor, and can opt to consolidate medical records data from their DrChrono OnPatient personal health records app right into their iPhone’s Apple Health app.
Nadeem N. Vaidya, M.D., Vitreoretinal Surgeon at Retina Orange County, is a DrChrono customer and early adopter of Health Records on iPhone. He shared, “I’m very happy with the pilot and I think it's going to be a huge boon for my patients to have their up-to-date medical records available on their own iPhone.”
“Patients have a right to their medical information, and they should be able to take their information with them wherever they go,” said Daniel Kivatinos, COO and Co-Founder of DrChrono. “We’ve been committed to FHIR API standards since the Obama administration’s Sync for Science initiative and have been expanding our FHIR API implementation. Now it is live and we are excited for patient members of the DrChrono platform whose doctors use the EHR to use Health Records on iPhone so it is always with them.”
How it Works
Previously, patients’ medical records were held in multiple locations, requiring patients to log into each care provider’s website to piece together the information manually. Health Records creates a direct connection between medical institutions and a patient’s iPhone, allowing them to see a central view of their allergies, conditions, immunizations, lab results, medications, procedures and vitals. It also notifies patients when their data is updated.
Health Records on iPhone was designed to protect patients’ privacy through utilizing a direct, encrypted connection between the user’s iPhone and participating healthcare organizations. Users authenticate through their patient portal credentials. Downloaded health records data is stored on-device and encrypted with the user’s iPhone passcode, Touch ID or Face ID. Apple worked with the healthcare community to take a consumer-friendly approach, creating Health Records based on FHIR, a standard for transferring electronic medical records.
Patients whose providers are participating in Health Records on iPhone are now able to easily consolidate all of their available medical records data into the Apple Health app. Patients simply go into the Health app on their iPhone, navigate to Health Records, select their provider and log in with their OnPatient credentials.
Other Benefits of FHIR
Separate from integrating with Health Records on iPhone, DrChrono’s open FHIR API also allows patients to choose to share their medical records with research institutes and other parties, opening the possibility for researchers to do meaningful medical research, for example with COVID-19 and its effects on a patient's current diseases, based on all the patient medical records coming from FHIR. This gives a much broader dataset, and it can mean more accurate/more representable results for researchers.
About DrChrono
DrChrono develops the essential platform and services for modern medical practices to make care more informed, more interactive, and more personalized. The open platform powers electronic health record (EHR), practice management, medical billing, and revenue cycle management solutions for thousands of physicians and millions of patients, and is fully extensible via a robust API and marketplace of applications and services. The platform is facilitating millions of patient appointments and is processing billions of dollars in medical billing. For more information visit www.drchrono.com.
Media Contact:
Gina Rezendes
Big Swing Communications
617-640-9278
press@drchrono.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d92446f2-a4da-431b-8573-547bf3f721f2